Origami Tessellations with Eric Gjerde

E Village / LES

Origami is an art form in ascendancy, with application in fields as diverse as biochemistry, engineering, and fashion. It is also a craft with a local history far more recent than one might imagine. Though paper folding is an ancient Chinese practice passed between generations, it wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that its tradition was popularized through how-to books, and eventually, its unique forms became subject to proprietary law.

Eric Gjerde is an origami artist working with tessellations: abstract repeat patterns, often sculptural, created from the same Arab geometry as the tile work of the Alhambra. He will show Between the Folds, a documentary that explores the vivacious plurality of contemporary origami, and will follow with a talk about his experience in the origami field, including a court case against a contemporary artist using original crease patterns in a series of recent paintings.